Nintendo has shared details on FireEmblem Awakening's first round of download content. Classic FireEmblem character Marth will appear in the game as a ¥300 download. Clear a map, and you'll get to make Marth into a party member.

Marth will be available for download on April 19, opposite Awakening's release. The DLC will be free through May 31.

Guess some missed the ";)" Uber posted at the end of that question. :p

But just to clarify, it will be an actual download.
Iwata (and members of the dev-team) already talked about their approach to DLC (i.e. new content that is not in the retail game and as much content in retail games as possible; so that DLC is not seen as "stuff cut from the game").

Guess some missed the ";)" Uber posted at the end of that question. :p

But just to clarify, it will be an actual download.
Iwata (and members of the dev-team) already talked about their approach to DLC (i.e. new content that is not in the retail game and as much content in retail games as possible; so that DLC is not seen as "stuff cut from the game").

So they are doing that by offering Marth as a downloadable character and announcing it more than a week before the game is out?

So they are doing that by offering Marth as a downloadable character and announcing it more than a week before the game is out?

Many developers tend to talk about their online plans, so that people now that they do have..well, online plans. The game may be released soon, but was finished some time ago; and they talked about starting that content after the game was finished.

Same way there will be "smaller DLC" for free through Spotpass like every day (like a new character every day or something).

Many developers tend to talk about their online plans, so that people now that they do have..well, online plans. The game may be released soon, but was finished some time ago; and they talked about starting that content after the game was finished.

Same way there will be "smaller DLC" for free through Spotpass like every day (like a new character every day or something).

Yep, the translation makes it sounds as if you finish a map/mission to unlock the character.

Re: Spotpass:
Players will receive a "Spot Pass Team" on a nearly daily basis.
This team will consist of characters made in the image of past FireEmblem characters.
You'll be able to fight them, make them into allies, and so-forth.
You can expect to receive around 120 teams through Spot Pass.

Yep, the translation makes it sounds as if you finish a map/mission to unlock the character.

Re: Spotpass:
Players will receive a "Spot Pass Team" on a nearly daily basis.
This team will consist of characters made in the image of past FireEmblem characters.
You'll be able to fight them, make them into allies, and so-forth.
You can expect to receive around 120 teams through Spot Pass.

So, these SpotPass Teams will essentially be CACs that Nintendo will send out, while the DLC characters are more fleshed-out with portraits and dialogue and whatnot?

Yep, the translation makes it sounds as if you finish a map/mission to unlock the character.

Re: Spotpass:
Players will receive a "Spot Pass Team" on a nearly daily basis.
This team will consist of characters made in the image of past FireEmblem characters.
You'll be able to fight them, make them into allies, and so-forth.
You can expect to receive around 120 teams through Spot Pass.

SpotPass downloads automatically and puts a little blue circle by the game icon. DLC you go to the eShop to download.

So, there will be characters/maps for free (via Spotpass) and for 300 yen (via DLC)? basically the same thing, but probably the best characters will be DLC and through Spotpass we'll get other "secondary" characters?

So, there will be characters/maps for free (via Spotpass) and for 300 yen (via DLC)? basically the same thing, but probably the best characters will be DLC and through Spotpass we'll get other "secondary" characters?

More or less, yeah. The free SpotPass characters will be create-a-character units based off past FE characters, whereas the paid DLC characters will be proper, unique units with individual models, portraits etc, or at least that's what I can gather from the info so far.

There will be no free maps, as far as I know; from the sounds of things the DLC will be released as packs, with a character and one or more maps to a pack.

More or less, yeah. The free SpotPass characters will be create-a-character units based off past FE characters, whereas the paid DLC characters will be proper, unique units with individual models, portraits etc, or at least that's what I can gather from the info so far.

There will be no free maps, as far as I know; from the sounds of things the DLC will be released as packs, with a character and one or more maps to a pack.

Ok, thank you. We'll see if the final details will be these, but up to now I can dig it as they are presenting the DLC issue.

Yep, the translation makes it sounds as if you finish a map/mission to unlock the character.

Re: Spotpass:
Players will receive a "Spot Pass Team" on a nearly daily basis.
This team will consist of characters made in the image of past FireEmblem characters.
You'll be able to fight them, make them into allies, and so-forth.
You can expect to receive around 120 teams through Spot Pass.

And the pic of Marth posted at AndriaSang:

Okay now somehow I wanted an Umakoshi-designed characters for FireEmblem.

It's actually pretty damn smart business wise, but still a pain in the ass for gamers. Forces me to buy a game early at full price if I want the full game.

Not really. The DLC isn't content that was cut from the game to be sold digitally, and if you wait six months (or five years, given that it's a Nintendo release) to buy the game at a reduced price and then buy the DLC it'll probably still be cheaper than buying new. It's a nice incentive to push a few people into buying early, nothing more.

After wario mentioned it this is pretty smart. If you have day 1 dlc and make it free for a limited time then either a.) you have to buy the game new - sort of - at retail price or b.) you can wait for bomba and buy the dlc. Granted, this is unlockable in-game from what i'm reading but still, I think this is an excellent way of handling it. Imagine if ME3 had From Ashes free for the first week and was 10 dollars afterwards.

I'm anti-DLC, but if it's free at first, then whatever, I'm fine with it.

But it still makes no sense for a strategy game. How are you supposed to balance a game when you can recruit an extra 120 characters via SpotPass, unless they're all mediocre?

Maybe this works for an RPG where gameplay is second to story, but FireEmblem is always gameplay first in my view. Is the game balanced to have one extra powerful character? Should I keep this in mind when choosing my difficulty? Or is using Marth like a cheat mode? Or does he suck, at which point... why bother?

In my days, DLC were called "unlockables" or "cheats".[/grumpy grandpa]

Pretty much. I'm more concerned that DLC gives companies an excuse to publish unfinished games with the purpose of fixing them afterwards. But I am aware this is an unpopular opinion.

Video games are dead to me again.

Well in this specific instance they hadn't even decided on whether to do DLC until the game was pretty much finished, and there was a very real chance that it wasn't gonna happen at all... if you believe the Iwata Asks, at least.